Many processes can be employed for generating an electronic image of a document for later retrieval through a network connection. Conventional rendering devices can be utilized to scan a document and generate an electronic image. Such devices may also be utilized to store the electronic image at a system-designated location, and provide information relating to the system-designated location to the user who scanned the document.
One of the important requirements involved in scanning and rendering documents is the ability to permit a scanned document to be accessible from a user's workstation. Prior art scanning and rendering methods and systems allow a user to transfer a document electronically from a multi-function device to a user's desktop, and then designating such a document as a “Scan-to-Email” document wherein the scanned document is transferred via SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) to a user's email inbox. A scan distribution status allows users to keep track of the scanned documents released for distribution to email recipients, reducing the chance of misdirected or undelivered files.
“Scan-to-File” can be employed in situations where the scanned document is transferred to a specified file server and a user accesses the file server to retrieve the electronic file. Another method involves scanning to a PC (Personal Computer) desktop. In such a situation, the scanned document can be transferred to a specified file server. A retrieval application monitors the file server and opens electronic file on the user's desktop.
Many network multifunction devices utilize Push/Pull processes to bring scanned images from the device to a local desktop. The term “Push” means first scanning the document to a mailbox, which can be a hard drive located on the computing device or a network server. “Pull: means that the user then must actually return to the desktop computing device, log into the mailbox, find the scanned image and then manually “pull” it back to the directory or file folder. An image retriever completely automates the process so that each new scanned image can be found on the user's desktop.
One of the problems with such prior art techniques is a lack of user authentication and security. Accordingly a need exists for a an improved rendering feature that provides a very simple and secure way to scan documents from a device to a user's home directory without any additional server software and which works with user authentication.